Philadelphia Daily News: Philly Felons

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/features/83322102.html

Posted on Tue, Feb. 2, 2010

Philly’s felons: One-man show offers unique perspectives on violent crime in the city

By CHRISTINE FISHER
Philadelphia Daily News

fisherc@phillynews.com 215-854-5444

WHEN PLAYWRIGHT Sean Christopher Lewis moved to Philadelphia from San Francisco, he was familiar with the city’s sports teams and die-hard fans, but not its violent crime.

After interviewing lifers at Graterford Prison, talking with victims of crime, and observing the city and its politics, Lewis came to know Philadelphia as a city struggling with violent crime and the fear it generates. The play he wrote and stars in, “City of Numbers, mixtape of a city,” captures the complexity of this urban issue.

Photo Credit: Philadelphia Daily News

“City of Numbers,” which opened last week, is a joint venture between the Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program and InterAct Theatre Company, and is the centerpiece of a monthlong celebration of the transformative power of art as a tool for social justice.

In this one-man show, Lewis delivers monologues spoken by more than a dozen characters – prison inmates, crime victims, political figures (including Mayor Nutter) and besieged citizens.

“City of Numbers” has been two years in the making.

In June 2008, Lewis began interviewing Graterford lifers in the Mural Arts’ Restorative Justice Program, in which inmates paint murals that are installed by volunteers in neighborhoods throughout the city. His intent was to write a 20-minute play to be produced for the prison.

He found the inmates to be incredibly helpful and forthcoming, open and often charming. Too charming, he came to believe, realizing there was more to the story than the prisoners’ perspective alone.

When he completed his work at the prison and started writing, the work “felt wrong,” he said. He realized he couldn’t paint a complete picture of crime’s reach or complexity.

With the help of victim advocacy groups, he reached out to victims of violent crime and their families. For the political perspective, he studied politicians’ public statements about crime and law enforcement, many of which found their way into the play.

By expanding the scope of the play, it grew to the current 75-minute, documentary-style drama that is on stage at the Adrienne Theatre.

“Whenever a project like this starts, you never know where it’s going to go,” said Robyn Buseman, director of the Mural Arts Restorative Justice Program. “It’s a really thought-provoking piece that he came up with.”

Buseman, who has more than 20 years of experience in criminal justice, said that “City of Numbers” captures the complexity of the issue.

“It’s wonderful in the fact that it captures each phase of crime” from offenders, to victims, to political figures and the families living in crime-ridden neighborhoods.

Before the play debuted in Philadelphia last week, Lewis workshopped it in cities across the country.

The response was enthusiastic and heartening.

“As a writer, you always hope it will connect with people,” he said. “An amazing thing is people would come up to me after or e-mail me after with amazing, incredibly personal stories.”

The feedback “has almost become a second act at this point. I’m a moderator as much as a participant,” Lewis said.

Besides “City of Numbers,” InterAct and the Mural Arts Program will host a free discussion with Nutter and other city officials on Feb. 15, an exhibition of art created through the Restorative Justice Program and a Young Voices Monologue Festival.

Lewis hopes the collaboration will provoke further conversation and sees dialogue as a key to solving the city’s intractable crime problem.

“Once headlines die down, people don’t really talk about it,” he said. “The idealist in me wants to say, ‘Don’t stop the conversation till [crime] is at zero.’ “

“City of Numbers: mixtape of a city,” Adrienne Theater, 2030 Sansom St., 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, through Feb. 21. $25-$29. Tickets: 215-568-8079, www.InterActTheater.org.

Citizens In Action, Adrienne Theater, 2030 Sansom St., 7 p.m. Feb. 15, panel discussion with Mayor Nutter, Ellen T. Greenlee, chief defender, Philadelphia’s Defenders Association, Everett A. Gillison, deputy mayor for public safety, and Jane Golden, executive director of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. Free.

Alumni, professors and students take Fringe stage

[Originally printed in Temple News Sept. 8, 2009]

“A History of Sh*t: Manson in Thebes” is an outrageous, off-color comedy featuring talent including Temple students, recent graduates and professors.

It’s not every day students get to see their professor in a 7-foot turd costume or watch as another brainwashes fellow students to join a colon-cleansing cult, convincing them to go on a murdering frenzy.

The collaboration of Temple minds, the Theatre of Evangelical Scientific Revolution and the 2009 Philly Fringe Festival make these and other outrageous scenes possible – and affordable – with the ongoing production of “A History of Sh*t: Manson in Thebes.”

Photo Credit: Temple News

The Philly Fringe play sends Charles Manson, played by Temple religion professor William Allen, back in time to ancient Greece.

There, he and the God of Sh*t, played by university Mosaic professor Norman Roessler, promote colon cleansing, begin a cult and evoke a killing spree – providing a view of what the production calls “the philosophical implications of poop.”

“It’s ridiculous, tragic and hilarious all at once,” Roessler said.

In addition to starring Temple professors, the play’s success is due to many Temple students and recent graduates. Max Marguiles, a Temple alumnus, was helping Roessler with work for an academic journal when the idea of participating in the Philly Fringe Festival was brought up.

Marguiles is a member of the Theatre of the Evangelical Scientific Revolution, a group of artists and comedians who helped bring “A History of Sh*t: Manson in Thebes” to the 2009 Fringe Festival. He was a major link between the theater group and the Temple students, graduates and faculty who joined the production.

“Max was definitely the center point of it,” Roessler said. In addition to the show’s lead roles, there are 15 to 17 people in the ensemble, and of them, about 10 are Temple students, he added.

Sophomore horticulture major Julie Bare plays Oliviana, one of the women who becomes brainwashed by Manson in the play.

“Whenever William Allen or Norm Roessler are in a scene together, it’s outrageous,” said Bare, adding that there’s even a port-a-potty on stage.

“William Allen does a terrific job,” Roessler said. “A lot of stuff is incorporated from his own religious studies.”

Roessler also contributed his academic knowledge and experience with the study of grotesque realism.
“It’s a real collaboration between everyone involved,” Bare said.

“It’s pretty much like a carnival. Everything is going on at once,” Roessler said about the show, which premiered Friday, Sept. 4.

“A History of Sh*t: Manson in Thebes” will run again at the Rotunda Thursday, Sept. 10 and 17 at 8 p.m. and at the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia Friday, Sept. 11 at 8 p.m. Admission is $5.

“You’ll laugh, you’ll revolt, your Facebook lifestyle will get a jolt,” according to the show’s Web site. “You’ll scream, you’ll cry, and you’ll only kiss $5 goodbye.”

Audience members also have a chance to win a free colonic. The Infinity Health and Wellness Center of East Falls, Philadelphia donated six colonics, which will be raffled off at each production.

Katya Quinn-Judge, a Temple University alumna who graduated in February with her bachelor of arts in theater, plays the mother of the King of Thebes. Katya’s character also gets sucked into the colon-cleansing cult led by a fictional Manson and, as a result, kills her son.

“We don’t take ourselves too seriously, so the audience shouldn’t either,” said Quinn-Judge.

“It’s called the History of Sh*t. I think it’s probably going to attract a strange crowd,” Bare said. “I think everyone will be pleasantly surprised. It’s a hilarious show.”

Christine Fisher can be reached at fisher.christine@temple.edu.